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Nigeria’s communal and ethnoreligious struggles draw from its multicultural and multi-ethnic diversity. However, the various unresolved group wars have worsened from the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War to the various low intensive conflicts. As a result, diversity, which should be Nigeria’s source of socio-economic strength, is a liability. Anugwom (2000) argues that the ethnic factor in Nigeria is the primary yardstick for allocating power and distributing national resources. This point set the stage for the various forms of identity politics and economic struggle, leading to fierce competition between and among the different tribal groups that make up Nigeria. Identity conflict in Nigeria is wide-reaching.

Data from Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database shows that in the twelve months to September 2021, communal clashes accounted for 14 out of the 890 conflict incidents and 80 out of the 3,787 casualties. Although this conflict type accounts for only 1.6 percent of the incidents (and 2.1 percent of the casualties), it has a super sized influence on the conflict situation in the country. These unresolved grievances fester over time and colour how social, cultural, and economic challenges are interpreted and resolved.

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The Nigerian Army is locked in a twelve-year war with jihadist terrorists. While deaths from terrorism have declined globally in the last five years, terrorist groups and criminal organisations are expanding their operations in the country. The protracted crisis in Nigeria’s North-East region has birthed one of the most severe humanitarian crises globally. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), people in need of urgent assistance in the North East region increased from 7.9 million to 10.6 million in 2020.

This crisis worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are about 1.9 million internally displaced persons, of which 60 percent are children. In addition, about 3.4 million people face acute hunger, and 300,000 children are at imminent risk of death due to acute malnutrition.

Data from Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database shows that in the twelve months to September 2021, Nigeria recorded 46 terrorist attacks resulting in 435 deaths, 21 injured persons, and 17 kidnapped persons. 75.9 percent of the fatalities were civilians, while the balance of 24.1 percent were security agents.

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Nigeria is experiencing substantial secessionist crusades across many locations, especially in the southern part of the country. The movement for a Biafran nation, currently championed by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a predominantly Igbo separatist organisation, remains the most daring. The group has created a parallel regional security apparatus known as the Eastern Security Network.

The region has lost millions of naira from these sit-at-home orders. A similar separatist organisation, the Yoruba Nation Movement led by Sunday Igboho, operates in the South-West region of Nigeria. Other secessionist struggles include the relatively sedate Biafra Customary Government (BCG), Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Niger Delta Republic, and the Oduduwa Republic.

Data from Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database26 shows that in the twelve months to September 2021, Nigeria recorded 74 alleged secession-related violent incidents in the South-East and South-South regions of Nigeria, resulting in 352 casualties (comprising of 98 civilians and 78 security agents), 17 persons injured, and two persons kidnapped. In addition, Amnesty International reports that between 2015 and 2016, Nigeria’s security forces killed about 150 pro-Biafran protesters across Southeast Nigeria.

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When in April 2014, Boko Haram abducted about 276 girls from their school in Chibok in Borno State, the world was outraged. The reality of the situation was difficult to comprehend. Eight years later, stories of shooters abducting entire schools barely get reposted in Nigeria’s very active social media. It has become the new normal. As of Q1 2021, all the public schools in northern Nigeria were shuttered, and the students were sent home in a public acknowledgement that the Government of Nigeria cannot protect its young.

Data from Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database shows that in the twelve months to September 2021, Nigeria recorded 20 kidnapping incidents resulting in 2,542 kidnap victims. Four states – Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, and Kaduna – account for 44 percent of the kidnap incidents and 82 percent of the kidnap victims. Only four states did not report any kidnapping incidents in the period under review. With the failure of the State to protect or retrieve the kidnapped, Nigerians have resorted to negotiating and paying the ransom. Unfortunately, this practice has made the crime attractive and increased kidnap incidents.

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Farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria, which were predominantly in the North-Central region, have spread across the country. The conflicts result in indiscriminate and avoidable loss of lives and properties. The country is locked in a perennial macabre dance between sedentary farmers and nomadic pastoralists or herders.

Although mostly an agrarian resource problem, an inaccurate definition of the conflict has turned it into one rooted in political, cultural, and ethnoreligious beliefs; and other distorted considerations. These narratives and profiles have aided aggressive encroachment and reprisal aggression between the parties leading to mutual hostility and reverse-violent attacks.

Data from Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database13 shows that in the twelve months to September 2021, farmer-herder conflicts occurred 71 times, accounting for 406 deaths, 49 injured, and 15 kidnapped persons. Except for one death, all the victims were civilians. The North-Central region remains the hotbed for farmer-herder conflicts (in terms of incidents), while the North-West is the most violent in terms of casualties per incident. The North-Central region recorded 58 percent of the incidents and accounted for 61 percent of the casualties.

At the same time, the South-West region recorded the second-highest number of incidents (25 percent of the total), only 12 percent of the deaths. The North-West region, on the other hand, recorded 4 percent of the incidents but 15 percent of the deaths. These proportions hold even when comparing all the victims (death, injured and kidnapped) to the total number of incidents. It is worthy of note that although the South-East recorded 6 percent of the incidents, it accounted for 9 percent of the deaths. The South-South had 6 percent of the incidents but only 3 percent of the casualties.

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Nigeria is facing its most significant governance and security challenges since its independence in 1960. Since the return to democratic rule in May 1999, there has been a spike in agitations from various groups and individuals. Insecurity and escalating violent conflict have remained at an all-time high since 2018, with every part of the country entangled in at least one form of insecurity or violent conflict.

The most significant security challenges and violent conflicts are banditry, farmer-herder conflicts, terrorism, secession agitations, kidnapping, cultism and gang wars, communal clashes, and maritime piracy. These security threats and violent conflicts result in records of daily deaths, kidnappings, loss of properties and injuries. As this insecurity continues, with the government showing a limited capacity to deal with the conflicts, this background paper to the Security Session at the 27th Nigeria Economic Summit profiles pragmatic approaches to solving the challenges to stem the tears of Nigerians and foreign residents in the country. Finding practical solutions to the rising insecurity and violent conflicts in Nigeria will help wedge the likelihood of neighbourhood and spillover effects in the region. This document presents reliable data and robust analysis that formed the basis of conversations during the 27th Nigeria Economic Summit.

In 2019, a team from Nextier SPD visited some northeast communities as part of the research to assess community resilience and peacebuilding initiatives. In what would be an intriguing litany of information, the team discovered novel civic solutions Boko Haram-impacted communities have initiated to cope and survive the insurgency. The research was supported by the European Union-funded Managing Conflict in Northeast Nigeria (MCN) Programme.

Keeping up with  national issues as they unravel may be a herculean task for many interested stakeholders and avid readers. Therefore, Nextier SPD has made deliberate efforts to compile all the thought pieces on current issues of security, peace and development concerns in Nigeria and beyond. This edition captures the burning issues in Nigeria as they unfolded in June 2021. The compilation coincides with the multiplicity of national issues seeking attention or in hot contestation.

This edition captures the burning issues in Nigeria as they unfolded in May 2021. The compilation coincides with the multiplicity of national issues seeking attention or in hot contestation. Keeping up with these national issues as they unravel may be a herculean task for many interested stakeholders and avid readers. Therefore, Nextier SPD has painstakingly developed an objective analysis of the problems as they evolved.